Need help w/ yellowing, dying tip problem w/ seedlings.

Hi Everybody. TY 4 looking at my problem here. I stole this pic off the internet just for comparison, as I do not have a camera.



This is what the first set of true leaves end up looking like on EVERYTHING(watermelon, tomato, cantaloupe, two different kinds of peppers, etc.), that I have been starting, for the last two years, INDOORS ONLY, and after just 2-3 WEEKS. Growth STUNTS, plant DROOPS some, it starts getting a YELLOW tip on the OLDEST set of true leaves, then as the YELLOWING progresses back toward the stem, the tips start turning LIGHT BROWN/DEAD at the tip, slowly following the yellow towards the stem, then when first set is completely dead, it starts, or has just started, with the SECOND NODE that has not even had a chance to get as big as the first leaves yet. I mean EVERY seed I've started, in EVERY soil mix I have tried(any ratio of mediums mentioned below), have died for the last two years now, INDOORS, and has even done so in a few different styles of hydro I used in the past couple years too. Also, I've noticed the veins themselves start to look a little yellow(still green in this pic) when all this happens as well. Any clue as to why guys? TY

All that I have to work with is; a little compost out in the yard, a 13 gal. garbage bag worth of composted bunny poo, a small bag of MG(Miracle Grow brand) perlite, quite a bit of plain course vermiculite, some Scotts Hyponex general potting soil, a small bag of MG cactus mix potting soil, and a small bag of MG seed starting mix. Also, for fertilizers, I have a little Espoma Flower Tone organic fertilizer left, some GH Flora Duo A&B, some GH Rapidstart, some FloraBlend, and some CalMag, and some Sulfur based PH down.

If you need me to fill in a form for the last setup I tried, then I can if you can post the questions for me. TY

Can you give some more info on your grow set up? Temp rh lights ect...your situation reminds me of when I had a toxic hydrohut grow tent...

Ty for a response Bublonichronic. That word "Toxic" has been haunting me for a while. Here we go, and BTW, I have a decent amount of indoor experience with many plants, on and off now, for about 15-16 years indoors, and have NEVER had these problems NOWHERE NEAR this bad.

Anyway, on my last start, with EVERYTHING that I tried to start, all seeds were started in and kept in these same conditions below, and EVERY type, of fruit, vegetable, or herb seedling, starting suffering the SAME described effects after the SAME time. After 2 weeks the problem starts, they were in pretty bad shape by week 3, and COMPLETELY un-savable after about 4-5 weeks w/ just a dot of green left on very top growth tip. The stuff I put outside is a different story though. After two weeks of being inside, then after a week of being put outside, those Watermelons, Tomatoes, and Cantaloupes started doing much better outdoors, and started going MUCH stronger and healthier, BUT.........lol


My Recent Inside Conditions, that have failed somehow, again, for the twentieth time or more.....


Seed Starting Location/Area - A 3 foot square, 7 foot tall, white painted, wood panel box, in the corner of a large Air Conditioned room.

Light - My primary light is a dimmable, digital, Air-Cooled 300/400w Hortilux MH Blue in an enclosed hood, usually running unchanged 16 or 18 hour "days", at 24-30" above the canopy, and I have also tried a second, different light, on different seed/seedling, starting/growing attempts, w/ a home-made 2' long, 1' wide, CFL fixture w/ (8bulbs) @ 26w each, 6000k color, over a seed flat.

Air Temperature - 78-79F(lights on). It also varies between 70F. at "night", to, no more than 82-84F. during the "day".

Soil Temp. - 78-79F(light on)((btw, I noticed my outdoor fruits and veggies seem to like the top 6-8" of soil getting to 100+F. in their 5 Gal. pots, and even the ones in seed flats, and seem to root fast and be happy that way.)?)

Nutes - NONE.

Humidity - 35-50%

Plants/Seeds - Mainly trying with homegrown Tomato seeds/seedlings, last attempt was with 18 seeds/sprouts/seedlings total, all culled now though.

Containers - Larger 18 cell seed flat, cells are about 2" x 2" x 4" deep, and 1 party cup.

Soils - MG Seed Starting mix((straight up w/ mostly peat and very little perlite - (NPK - 0.03, 0.03, 0.03)) for 12 of the seeds/seedlings, and 6 tomato seeds got started in straight cactus mix(NPK - 0.06, 0.02, 0.04) both being around 6.4-6.6 PH. Also recently had a single seedling in a party cup, w/ my seasoned, outdoor potting mix that got flushed well with rain over winter, w/ a 50ppm meter reading.

Watering - About 1-2 ounces, distilled water, every 3 days or so, or when top half, or top two-thirds of soil dries out, and while waiting till it's just starting to shrink away from sides, but while always keeping bottom third of soil moist, and definitely never UNDER-watered.

Ventilation - Good. Cool, fresh air is passively sucked into bottom of box, and heat is sucked out through the light w/ a blower

Did I miss anything? Please ask if I did.


Please help. Please guide me. I have honestly always tried to be the very best person that one can be, and I feel that I deserve the best help figuring out what to do in here. I really wish I could just move to a state where I could legally start growing this beautiful herb, or help to grow, a much better kind of medicine for my torn up self and others.

I'm personally dying more and more with every failed attempt here, both figuratively AND actually, as I have very painful, and unfixable Spinal Stenosis in my neck AND lower back, that has caused me to not be able to exercise much since a near fatal rear-end car collision, where a crack-head hit me at 70Mph., on the free-way, while I was sitting still , and even worse yet, it has all NOW led to very painful, un-repairable, Coronary Artery Disease w/ Congestive Heart Failure in my heart, on top of the Wolff–Parkinson–White syndrome in my heart, that I was born with. This is only just a taste of my medical problems, that have left me piss poor and hurting constantly now, and I'm only 35 years old. It all happened when I was only 20, while I was in college and working my ass off to secure a future for myself, but that "accident" SERIOUSLY ruined it all for me. I'm not pulling anybodys leg here either. No joke, I'm bawling again.
16 years of nothingness, then topped with a few years of seedlings constantly dying in here, has gotten so old.

Many things have been tried with my veggies and fruits, but always with the same EXACT results in this house.

Jesus.... I'm sorry for your misfortune...I'd just give ya some herb if I could

Well, some people have more misfortune than others I guess. I'm sorry bout yesterday, as it was a bad day. I have too many of those lately. At least I'm not dead or hurting to bad today with my opiates and all.

Anyway, as far as my seed starting goes, does anyone think it is something I'm doing wrong with the different ways I'm trying, or is it possibly just bad air or something like that?

Skip the pre-made seedling soils......
If you can get POTTERS GOLD,,,use that....nutrition for 30 days,,,water only......organic.

Thank you for that comment Dr. That was the next thing that I was thinking about changing, and get away from the commercial crap.

If I do a simple pour-through test on a batch of soil, does 400 PPM sound too hot for grown plants? What about fifty PPM, pour through method, ? I'm fixing to go do that same kind of testing on some of the MG seed mix, out of curiosity. I will post the results for all soon.

Is your only issue that 1 leaf turns brown? Your not using nutes.... Leaves are gonna die.

Well, The MG seed starting mix ended up showing about 0.5 EC or 350ppm on my meter with a 6.5 PH. That crap is REALLY soupy after a good watering too.

Hi Daggy, ty 4 the concern. The first true set of leaves ALWAYS start yellowing and dying from the tip back, just as second and third nodes are trying to get going, on EVERYTHING I start, but only indoors. Sometimes B4 the second node starts growing even. ALL fruits, veggies, and "herbs" do the same, no mater what mix their in, and any amount of nutes does em' in even worse. ???

Well, with what I posted about the MG seed mix, I don't think I'll ever consider trying it again. I don't think it's even a safe additive in my general purpose outdoor mix. Just stays WAY too wet, for WAY too long.

From looking at the picture in post 1 it looks a bit like my plants lower leafs as motioned in this thread. Think my problem is Miracle grow crap.

https://www.rollitup.org/t/easy-bud-problems.833229/

It actually seems very difficult to discover a cause to this problem. Some say that MG stuff even works well for them, so idk.

I've gotten really frustrated, cause I can grow outside pretty dang well, but trying to grow anything indoors, long term, has been failing me for 2-3 yrs. now, no matter what system I try, or plant, or medium. I feel like the money that I spent on a new 400w MH light last year was just a complete waste now, as the same with a lot of other stuff I bought for this indoor project too. I'm poor as it is, and nee to get my own stuff growing right.

the curse of miracle grow.

Hi Don. Do you really think that the MG products are the ONLY CAUSE to this problem? Have you EVER heard of some sort of infection in the air causing THIS EXACT problem to indoor seedlings?

I knew better than to buy the crap soils and seed mix, but I did have some slightly better luck with it MANY years ago indoors, after lightening it up, and givin it one good PHed flush, but as we all know, the quality of MOST products are getting even sorrier by the day now. I have to admit, I did better than this, years ago, when I was screening and sterilizing yard soil and lightening it up with just sand. I might even go back and try that again. I'm just tired of everything that's available either being crap, or slightly better expensive crap. I have a rocky, iron rich, heavy, red clay based soil here naturally, and LOTS of vermiculite that might do better. Lol

Any other advice anybody?

Wow. Going back and reading my old posts from last year have just made me even more depressed now, as things have only gotten worse. I've never stopped trying to grow different things inside, but I'm using a flood and drain setup right now(with hydroton rocks surrounding a 1" cube of rockwool that I start the seeds in), the air-cooled 400w MH dimmed to 300w at about 30" above seedlings(which is equal to a partly overcast day out of direct sun, according to my light meter), and GH FloraDuo nutes, and still killing every seedling that I get started after a couple weeks. ??? Can someone please guide me as to how to get started right with this setup?

Are you over watering the fuck out of them.

if you're using all of those ferts, it's too much. just foxfarm soil. all you'll need for quite a while

ill try help you mate, but bare with me. Have you got them separately in individual pots or all together on a table? If pots what size?